AROUND THE WORLD.

U.S. free-trade pact gets its 1st member

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR — El Salvador on Wednesday became the first Central American nation to join a regional free-trade agreement with the United States.

President Tony Saca inaugurated the pact in a ceremony at a food-exporting company.

But about 3,000 people marched elsewhere in the capital, San Salvador, to protest the agreement, which they say will hurt local farmers, street vendors and organized labor faced with competition from cheaper goods or with tighter restrictions on sales of counterfeit goods.

Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic have ratified the treaty but are still working on enabling legislation. Costa Rica's legislature is still debating the accord.